A Pennsylvania hacker has been sentenced to 18 months for hacking into and selling the access to various computer networks, also fined $25,000.

According to the Boston Globe, Andrew James Miller, 24 year old, who lives with his parents in Pennsylvania, hacked into the computers of various law enforcement agencies, academic institutions, corporations and government agencies including the Dept. of Energy.

He is said to be part of the part of a underground hacker group called "
Underground Intelligence Agency" with online moniker "Green.

The man asked sorry for his actions and said "wish to do anything I can to correct the situation".

Assistant US Attorney Adam J. Bookbinder highlighted that Miller was fully aware that his actions are illegal. But because of making money, he was willing to do it.

Notorious online marketplace "Silk Road" has been taken down by the FBI and the owner "Ross Ulbricht" a.k.a (Dread Pirate Roberts) has been arrested . Proving that "Perfect security is impossible"

He has been charged with conspiracy to traffic narcotics, conspiracy to hack computers, and conspiracy to launder money.

The website now shows a "This Hidden Site Has Been Seized" message

Silk Road was the drug dealing website in the world .It used the "TOR hidden network" to hide itself and its users.It seems Ross Ulbricht was caught due to his own mistakes and NOT due to a vulnerability in the TOR network.

This site had been a major point used lawmakers and politicians to try to curtail the growth of the TOR
network.And now the recent actions by the FBI against many hidden sites in the TOR network is indeed a very big setback for it.

All the transactions in silkroad were done using Bitcoins and since the news of Ross Ulbricht's arrest bitcoin value has dropped quite a bit (Due to paranoid selling). But this is just the currency stabilizing itself, when it stabilizes BTC value will rise again. And the removal of association from such illigal market places might actually be a good thing for bitcoins.

An alleged scammer who is responsible for stealing personal data of more than 10,000k people through a spam mail pretending to be from the Bureau of National Health Insurance has been arrested in China.

Surnamed Pan, tricks victims into download and open the attachment that contained a malicious software allowing him to steal the personal data from the affected computers.

According to China Post report, he used few techniques to avoid the antivirus detection and tested his malware numerous time before launching the real attack.

Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said he had stolen "vast amounts of classified financial information from location companies". He then used those details for accessing the online banking accounts and committed credit card fraud.

He was arrested at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, on Jan 5, while he was in transit from Malaysia to Egypt.

If convicted, he will face a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud; up to 20 years for each wire fraud count; up to five years for conspiracy to commit computer fraud; up to five or 10 years for each count of computer fraud; and fines of up to $14 million.

A Software programmer who was employed at the High-voltage power manufacturer company arrested for hacking into the computer network of the company.

According to the FBI report, Michael Meneses, was employed at the victim company as a software programmer and system manager specializing in developing and customizing the software that the company used to run its business operations.

He was one of two employees who were primarily responsible for ensuring that the software that drove the company’s manufacturing business. His responsibilities gave him high-level access to the company’s computer network.

He had voiced displeasure at having been passed over for promotions, tendered his resignation in late December 2011. Then, he allegedly launched cyber attack against the company and steal employee's security credentials. He then used those credentials for accessing the network remotely via VPN. The complaint says the company suffered over $90,000 in damages as a result of Meneses’s intrusions.

If convicted, he will face a statutory maximum sentence of years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and restitution.

The masterminds allegedly behind one of the notorious banking Trojan Carberp that stoles millions of dollars and the developers have been arrested in Ukraine.

Carberp is a banking Trojan that first appeared in 2010 and started as a private malware used by a single group. The gang in 2011 sold the malware's builder, a tool used to customize their Trojan program for $10,000 to a limited number of customers.

28-year-old Russian, the alleged leader of the group arrested along with about 20 individuals aged between 25 and 30 years old.

According to Kommersant Ukraine report, the cyber criminal ring is responsible for stealing more than $250 million in Ukraine and Russia alone.

Slovenian Police performed 12 house searches and arrested five cyber criminals who are believed to be responsible for the malware attacks that steals money from companies bank accounts.

It all started last year when the Slovenian national Computer Emergency Response Team(SI-CERT) started receive reports regarding a malware attacks.

The victims received emails pretending to be coming from a local bank and state tax authority with a Trojan horse attached.

The malware installs the Remote Administration tool that steals victim's e-banking credentials and send it to the cyber criminals.

"With stolen credentials and in the case where the victim did not remove the smart card containing the bank-issued certificate from the reader after use, the doors to the company's bank accounts were left open to the criminal gang." SI-CERT's report reads.

The attackers cleverly planned their attacks to happen on Fridays or the day before national holidays, so that the companies wouldn't immediately notice the theft.

According to the report, the criminal group used 25 money mules to transfer around 2 million Euros.

More than 1,600 Indians were arrested in 2011 for Cyber Crimes registered under the Information Technology (IT) Act (2000) and under sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC), nearly 30% more than previous year.

According to Times of India report, Indian Minister of State for Communications Milind Deora said that a total 1,630 persons arrested in 2011 comprised 1,184 under Information Technology (IT) Act (2000) and 446 under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) related to cybercrimes.

In 2010, the number of arrests for cybercrime under the IT Act (2000) was 799 and 394 under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), making a total of 1,193.

Last year's cybercrime cases pertained to tampering computer source documents, hacking, obscene publication/transmission in electronic form and failure of compliance/order of certifying Authority, among other reasons.

Is it crime to share a link to data leaks? The Today indictment of Anonymous spokesperson shows sharing link to data leaks is crime.

Barrett Brown , the former spokesperson for the Anonymous hacktivist, has been charged of one count of trafficking stolen authentication features, one count of access device fraud, and ten counts of aggravated identity theft.

The charges are related to the Stratfor hack carried out by hacktivists at the end of 2011.

Brown isn’t charged with committing the stratfor hack but for posting links to file contains the 5,000 credit card details that were stolen in the incident.

" By transferring and posting the hyperlink, Brown caused the data to be made available to other persons online, without the knowledge and authorization of Stratfor and the card holders." The Feds says.

From the story, We can come to a conclusion that all Journalist who covers the hacking incident and links to data leaks are making crime.

At that time of stratfor hacking incident, links to the stolen credit card details were widely shared on twitter - are all the users who shared the links going to be rounded up and arrested, too?

A British Student hacker associated with the Anonymous hacktivist has been convicted in UK for his involvement in series of cyber attacks against the Paypal, Mastercard, Visa in 2010 as part of 'Operation Payback'